AScUS 2020: Actionable Science for Urban Sustainability IE University Segovia, Spain, June 3-6, 2020 |
Conference website | https://ascus.metabolismofcities.org/ |
Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ascus2020 |
The 2020 Actionable Science for Urban Sustainability (AScUS)—pronounced 'ask us'—(un)conference emphasizes the urgent need for the production of actionable and multidisciplinary knowledge to tackle urban sustainability challenges across the globe. It will serve as a convergence platform for researchers and practitioners of all backgrounds (from political science and psychology to architecture and engineering) focused on the development of actionable and scalable solutions and their transfer to implementers.
AScUS-2020 is a participants-driven (un)conference with the mission to engage attendees to stimulate in-depth discussions. The in-person event will not feature any individual presentations; instead, all contributions from participants will have to be submitted online ahead of time. Discussion topics will also be selected by the participants ahead of the event.
The (un)conference will start with a virtual component several weeks before the conference, when the participants will be expected to submit their contribution, to start generating discussions and sharing knowledge among participants. See the main website for details. The (un)conference will then culminate with a two and a half day event at IE University in Segovia that can be attended physically or remotely.
NOTE on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the AScUS (un)conference:
The AScUS (un)conference may be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, thanks to its strong remote component, we are keeping the current dates for the (un)conference (June 3–5). In fact, abstract submission was reopened and pushed to March 30 since many conferences were canceled and new participants might be interested to submit their work.
The in-person event may or may not take place, depending on how the situation unfolds. On May 1, we will make a final call on the in-person event, but the remote component will go on as scheduled. When registration opens (early April), we will allow for people to initially register as a remote participant and upgrade their registration in May depending on the situation. For the most up to date information, please visit the main website.
Submission Guidelines
Interested participants are invited to submit abstracts (300 words) for their contribution by February 23 March 30 (now closed) and will be notified by March 15 April 6 if they are accepted. Discussion sessions (100–400 words) are invited to be submitted by April 15 22 30. Note that we require all participants to register for the (un)conference by May 1 7 since the event officially starts with the virtual activities in May, ahead of the event at IE University.
Abstracts should contain:
- A general statement about the topical area being addressed and relevance to urban sustainability (accessible to a general public)
- A contribution statement to justify why the work is suited for AScUS
- An objective statement about the work itself
- A short discussion of the methods and results (if applicable)
- A short discussion of the contribution of the work to the topical area and to urban sustainability
Discussion session proposals (100-400 words) should contain:
- A title
- A general statement explaining the discussion topic (accessible to a general public)
- A specific goal statement explaining the goal of the discussion
- A statement about the structure/format of the session (e.g., list of activities)
- An estimated deliverable from the discussion session
Discussion sessions can run up to 2.5 hours. Deliverables—called Paths to Action—can take any form (e.g., short white paper, list of important research questions, summary of the discussion outcomes, special issue proposal, op-ed in a newspaper) and will be shared with all participants.
Note that discussion sessions are not special sessions—proposals that include uniquely a series of presentations are not allowed. Some time may be spent on presentations, but audience participation must be a large part of the session.
# Who can suggest a discussion topic? Anyone attending the conference, whether this person has submitted an abstract or not.
# How will your session be selected? The organizing committee will examine every session proposal individually and cross-check them with the interests of the participants. In cases of significant overlap between proposals, discussion session organizers may be asked to collaborate on one discussion session.
# What do you commit to? Before the conference, a discussion session organizer commits to taking part in pre-conference activities and exchanging with other participants to potentially help shape the discussion session (e.g., presentations, discussions sub-topics, type of deliverable). During the conference, a discussion session organizer commits to moderating the session and coordinating the efforts to generate the deliverable.
# How to submit? Discussion topics are invited to be submitted on EasyChair here.
#When is the deadline? The submission for discussion sessions is open until April 22 30.
#Other questions? Questions regarding discussion topic submissions can be asked directly to any of the organizing committee members or emailed to ascus@metabolismofcities.org.
List of Topics
The (un)conference is not limited to any one discipline or any particular topics, but we are listing a few topics of potential interest:
- Sustainability and Resilience Metrics
- United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
- Infrastructure Modeling and Design
- Policy and Governance towards Urban Sustainability
- Urban Ecology
- Human Behavior and Psychology related to Urban Sustainability
- Urban Geography
- Environmental Justice
- Circular Economy at the Urban-Scale
- Behavior and Rebound Effects
- Life Cycle Design in the Built Environment
- Sustainable Cities: Open Source Data, Big Data, and Data Mining
- Data-Driven Urban Design
- Urban and Hinterland Relationships
- Education in Urban Sustainability Science
Conference Format
Details about the conference format (both in-person and remote) can be found on the main website.
Venue
The conference will be held at IE University's campus in Segovia, a 25-minute train ride from Madrid. The old city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring among other attractions, one of the world’s largest and best-preserved Roman aqueducts, and the castle that inspired Disney’s Snow White. For more information, see: http://visitsegovia.turismodesegovia.com/.
Contact
All questions about submissions should be emailed to ascus@metabolismofcities.org. Alternatively, feel free to contact any organization committee members (see below).
Organizing Committee
- Matan Mayer (host) | IE University | mmayer@faculty.ie.edu
- Shauhrat Chopra | City University of Hong Kong | sschopra@cityu.edu.hk
- Sybil Derrible | University of Illinois at Chicago | derrible@uic.edu
- Paul Hoekman | Metabolism of Cities | paul@metabolismofcities.org
- Carolin Bellstedt | Metabolism of Cities | carolin@metabolismofcities.org
- Aristide Athanassiadis | Metabolism of Cities | aristide@metabolismofcities.org
- Eugene Mohareb | University of Reading | e.mohareb@reading.ac.uk
- Kangkang Tong | Princeton University | kangkang.tong@princeton.edu
- Anne Ventura | University Gustave Eiffel | anne.ventura@ifsttar.fr